high school love
by nightshadowfairy
Summary: Percy is in love with his best friend, who loves him back. But what happens when they decide to explore they're feelings? Will Percy be able to help Nico, or will Nico take Percy down with him?
1. The forbidden subjects

'Were is he?' I thought, for what seemed like the millionth time. I was currently waiting for my best friend (and my not-so-secret crush, as everyone knew I liked him ) Nico to arrive at the cafeteria. He was 10 minutes late. Yes, I know I was being pathetic, I just couldn't find it in me to care. We Were practically joined by the hip since we became friends 2 years ago, when he moved to New York. We didn't really have any other friends, because we were always to preoccupied with each other to think about anyone else. There was hardy a time you cold find us apart, we had every class together but the last one today before lunch break, which is the reason I was so anxious for him to get here! He texted me shortly right after the lunch bell saying that the teacher asked to talk to him after class. I knew it wasn't because he got in trouble since he had English - the only class he really cared about, so it really left me curious...  
I got pulled out of my thoughts as I felt strong arms rap around my neck from behind, and heard that sexy voice whisper "sorry I'm late" in my ear. "You better be," I said in return, as he walked to the seat across from me. "I missed you." He smiled at that, and said that the teacher wanted to talk to him about something. "what did the teacher want to talk about?" I asked, mostly curious, but also a little concerned.  
He got that look in his eyes, the look he only gets when something had to do with what I called the forbidden subjects - ether his family or his past. The only time he ever told me anything about those subjects where at this one sleepover we had about half a year ago, right before we started 9th grade. It was Not a pretty night. He cried in my arms for what seemed like hours. That's how I knew I wasn't going to get anything out of him, at least not then and there. "nothing" he mumbled, "it's not important". He didn't want to talk about it, so I wasn't going to push.  
"okay" I answered, smiling, trying desperately to get that look out of his eyes. "wanna skip and go watch a movie at my place?" I asked. We had P.E next, and even though I didn't mind it, I knew he hated it on a good day, which today was not. He brightened up at that. "sure", he said, already getting up and picking up his bag. He spent practically every free minute at my house, most nights to. My parents absolutely love him, and think of him as there own son.

During the walk home, that look came back. Oh, how I hate that look. In an attempt to get it to go away, I took his hand in mine ans laced our fingers together. He looked up at me and smiled, the look melting, just a little bit. It was't uncommon to find us in contact, whether it was holding hands or hugging or cuddling in my bed when he slept over. And I got an intense attack of butterflies every time.

I let him pick the movie, which meant that we were going to watch a horror movie, probably about zombies or ghosts.  
I was right, he chose World War Z. He walked back to my bed after putting the DVD in my TV, lying whit his head in my lap. I got more comfortable ans started running my fingers through his soft hair.

Somewhere around half an hour in to the movie I found myself lying on my bed, with his head on my chest and his arm around my waist. It was common for things like that to happen when we're watching a movie or something like that, but it sure made watching it hard. It was _really_ hard to focus on anything else when this amazingly beautiful boy is cuddling up to me.

Even after the movie ended we stayed in each others arms. It seemed to be our favorite place to be.  
"Hey, Nico?" I said after a while. "yeah Perce?" he answered me. "what did the teacher want to talk about?" I asked, barley over a whisper. "n-nothing" he said, in the same hushed voice. I understood why he didn't want to talk about these things with me, but I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt. I mean, I was his best friend. I was there when nobody else was, I helped him through the hardest time in his life, I took care of him, and he couldn't - wouldn't talk to me about it? did he not trust me?  
"Percy, please, don't look so hurt" he said in a pleading tone, while sitting up "you know I don't like talking about...about...that". He looked down at his hands, not meeting my eyes.  
"Nico, you know you can tell me anything" I said in a soft voice," do you not trust me?"  
"of cores I trus you, Percy! your my best friend. And I know I can talk to you, I just...I just don't want to talk about it..."  
"Okay", I said, giving up. "do you want to watch another movie?" I asked. "No", he said, "I'm pretty tired, actually. I think I'll just take a nap." "care if I join you?" I asked. "sure" he smiled, cuddling up to me again, getting comfortable.  
"Good night, Percy." he said, closing his eyes.  
"Good night, Nico" I answered, adding 'I love you' in my head. And soon we where both asleep.


	2. Tyson's birthday

**AN: Hey guys, so hear's the second chapter.  
****Hope you enjoy :)**

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I was woken up from my sleep when I heard the apartment's door open and shut. Shit. My mom was home early.

I shook Nico awake, knowing he could sleep threw the smoke detector alarm (It happened once. He's a _really_ heavy sleeper). I checked my watch and saw that it was only about 3 p.m, with meant that there was still about an hour left until we were supposed to be home from school. Nico was looking at me confused, and I was about to whisper to him that my mom was home, when she started making noise in the kitchen. A look of realization came to his eyes.  
"Shit" he said, mirroring my thoughts. "Yeah," I said. "what do we do?" And of course, even though we were whispering, she heard us. That's on of the things I hate the most about living in a small apartment - there was no privacy. _At all.  
_"Percy? Nico?" my mom called. "Are you guys home?"  
"yeah," I called back, trying to think of a good excuse, looking at Nico for help. He caught my desperation, and motioned for me to fallow him to the kitchen, so we could talk to my mom without having to yell.  
God, I was such a bad liar. Nico, on the other hand, was quite a good one. Sometimes it kind of scared me how good of a liar he was.  
"Hey, Sally." He said, calm as ever. "Our last period was cancelled. The teacher was out sick and they couldn't find a sub, so they let us go home." And then he smiled that reassuring smile of his, the one he always gives me when he tells me he's fine (great, now I'm really worried - he's probably not fine at all). My mom believed him, of course, but I could see there was still something bothering him. My mom said she had to go pick up some last-minute things for Tyson's birthday party today - so that's why she was home early - it was my little brother's birthday party today, I almost forgot. Good thing Nico and I already went present shopping.  
After I heard the car leave the drive way, I knew she couldn't hear us any more, so I asked Nico "what's wrong?". Instead of saying 'nothing' like I expected him to, he nearly whispered "I hate lying to your mom." With such a sad look in his eyes, it was heart breaking . "All she ever does is be kind to me, and all I ever do is be a bad friend to her son, making him skip school and then lie about it." He looked down at his shoes, not willing to meat my eyes. "That's not true." I said, meaning it. That's definitely not how I see him, and my mom does't ether. "You didn't make me do anything, I skipped school because I wanted to. And a little white lie doesn't hurt anyone, so no harm done, right?" I said, trying to get that sad look out of his eyes. "Yeah," he said, adding automatically "I'm fine". Like hell he was, but I could tell that wasn't the time to talk about it. I would get him to talk to me soon, though, because I was really starting to get worried. I couldn't let it get out of hand and not notice him...doing...that again. No, I had to talk to him soon.

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Tyson's party was small since he didn't have many friends - he only had one, actually, but they were very close, so he didn't mind. It was only my mother - Sally, my step-father - Paul Blofis, Tyson's friend - Ella, Nico and I.  
Tyson was turning 6. He pretty much thought of Nico as another big brother, since Nico started spending most of his time hear when Tyson was about 3 and a half, and hardly remembered the time of his life without Nico in it.  
The party was very nice - we played party games like musical chairs and pass the parcel and thing like that, and then we had blue cake - it was a tradition in our family, to eat blue food on special occasions because my firs step-father (who was a really bad person) once told me that food can't be blue after I asked my mom for a blue birthday cake for my 7th birthday. My mom proved him wrong, and it just kind of stuck.  
After eating cake, we each gave him our presents. My mom and Paul got him a set of all kinds of different toy cars. He got really excited and crushed them in a hug. He was big and strong, for a 6-year-old. Ella got him a LEGO set. He absolutely loves LEGO. He got even more excited than before, but didn't hug her so hard, because she was so small and skinny.  
Nico and I got him gifts that complete each other - I got him 'Finding Nemo' bath toys and Nico got him 'finding nemo' stuffed animals. 'Finding Nemo' was his favorite movie of all times, so he got _really _excited about that. He started jumping with joy, screaming 'Thank you' over and over again. It had to be the cutest thing I ever saw.

After the party was over and Ella's mom came to pick her up, it was only 8 p.m, too early to go to sleep. Nico and I went back to my room, and I decided it would be a good time to try and talk to Nico.  
"Hey, Neeks?" I said,weaker than I would have liked. "Yeah, Perce?" He answered, hearing something a little of in my voice.  
"You know you can talk to me, right?" I said, not knowing what else to say. "Yeah, I know, Percy." he said, sounding a little impatient. "I just...Nico, I worry about you. And I think I have a pretty legit reason, too. I just don't...don't want to see you slip into that place again, Nico, I don't want to have to find you on my bathroom floor again in the middle of the night to know what's happening with you." I said, my voice sad and weak and strained. "Percy..." he said, making me look up from my shoes.  
"Percy, I'm fine. Really. I promised you that if I ever feel the need to...again, I'll tall you, right? so stop worrying. Now, let's watch a movie, preferably a comedy" He said, in a kind of casual way I wasn't buying for one second, but I knew I had lost, for now, and he wasn't going to talk. So all I said was "I get to pick the movie".

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**AN: So I'm sorry for any spelling or typing mistakes, it's really late here, and I'm really tired.  
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed :)**


	3. In the morning

**AN: Hi guys, so I keep trying to add an AN to the first chapter of the fic, but for some reason it won't save what I write, so I guess I'll just say it here. Okay, so this is my first fanfic, and basically the firs, like, story or whatever I've ever written, so please go easy on me... but please do review and tell me what you think, what you liked and what you didn't. where I can improve and stuff like that. It would really mean a lot to me if you did.  
With that being said, I hope you enjoy :)**

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**Percy PoV:**

That night, with all of my worries about Nico, everything started coming back to haunt me.  
All of the images I tried so hard to forget, or even just move on from, came rushing back, flooding me with all of the bad feelings attached. I worked so hard, did so much to try to get him - us - out of that place, and now I have this awful feeling that he was slipping back there, and he just would not let me help him. It was painful and frustrating at the same time. And the worst part of it all was that I'm sure he felt like he was all alone with his problems, like he couldn't - or even shouldn't - talk to me about it, let me in. And I hated it.  
I ended up going to sleep only around 3 o'clock in the morning because I was so bothered by everything, only to be woken up at 6 in the morning by Nico. (He might be a heavy sleeper, but he sure loves to wake up early. Sometimes I think he just does it to irritate me, knowing I'm a light sleeper.)  
"Ugh," I complained. "why must you wake up so early _every _morning?" while pulling a pillow over my head, trying to shield myself against the early-morning light Nico so evilly let in through the curtains on the window.  
"Because it's always peaceful in the morning." He answered, looking out the window at a family of birds that was chirping, quite loudly if I might say.  
"So can you at least try to not wake _me_ up too?" I said, only half annoyed. "Not all of us are as naturally as beautiful as you. I _need_ my good 8 hours of sleep at _least_, Thank you very much." I could he him visibly brighten up at the 'naturally beautiful' part, and it made my heart swell. I did mean it, he really was beautiful. I could stare at him all day.  
"It's not my fault you'r such a light sleeper!" he said in a defensive tone. "Well, maybe if you wouldn't hang on to me at night so tightly, I wouldn't wake up when you finally let go in the morning" I shot back, only kidding. I loved that he cuddled up to me at night, and I did the exact same thing. Once, on a weekend, we stayed up all night watching movies, playing video games and just talking (Nico had to sleep in that morning, since we only fell asleep after watching the sun rise together - a _very _romantic moment, may I add.) and my mom came in to my room that morning, and said we looked like little kids holding on to their teddy bears really tight after having a nightmare.  
"Oh, please, you know you love cuddling with me, don't act like you don't do it too." He said in a confident tone, but I could see the slight blush on his pale cheeks before he turned his head, trying to hide it. He could be so cute sometimes!  
"Fine, you got me." I said, smiling a whole-hearted smile. Sometimes, I felt like I just _had _to make some kind of move, like kiss him or something, or else I'll go crazy, and sometimes (like now) I felt completely content with what we had. Although, the times that I felt like I had to do something were becoming more and more frequent, and I kind of felt like I was going to go crazy with all of my feelings for my (although closer than normal) _friend, _and not more - like I so desperately wanted. And though it was easy to forget at times like these, when it was easy to overlook the sad, slightly empty, tint to his otherwise happy look, (I think that's why it took me so long to realize that everything was _not _okay, like he so often told me) I could tell it was not the best time to try to get something more out of him.  
"Perce?' Nico said, like he had called my name numerous times before. "What?" I said, sounding a bit confused, even to myself.  
"Did you hear a word I said?" He asked, sounding a little annoyed and a little endearing at the same time, like spacing of was something that he was used to, and it was. It really did happen a lot... I think it's because of my ADD and ADHD and all of that.  
"Umm...no?" I said, feeling a little guilty. "I guess I just have a lot on my mind..." I said.  
"Care to share those thoughts with me?" he said, in his shrink voice. "No, I don't think I would, doc." I said, playing along.  
We both laughed a little at our on-going inside jock (we kind of did it every time one of us - mostly me - would zone out).  
"No, but seriously, is there something bothering you? It kinda seems like you were deep in thought about something...upsetting." He said, sounding concerned, which was ironic, since I was just worrying about him. "Oh, it's nothing important" I said, dismissing it. He raised an eyebrow at that, and I could see he didn't believe me, but he let it go.  
"come on" he said instead. "We need to get ready for school." "But it's only six thirty!" I whined. "We don't even need to be _up_ for another half hour! I'm going back to sleep." I said decisively. "You'r welcome to join me if you want." "Ugh, fine." He said, giving up, and coming back to bed, lying his head on my chest. "But only for half an hour." Of course, it turned out to be 45 minutes instead, and so we were late for school, but it was defiantly worth the cuddle-and-sleep time I got with Nico, so I'm not complaining.

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**AN: So thank you all for reading, and I'm sorry the chapters are so short, I just always write at night, since my family kind of doesn't know I write, because I'm kind of shy about it...  
I hope you all enjoyed it anyway :) **


	4. Bonding with Paul

**AN: Hey guys, I'm really sorry for not updating for a long time. I went off to summer camp, it was incredibly fun, if anyone was wondering...  
Okay, so about the story itself, I feel like it wasn't clear when Percy started worrying about Nico and noticing something is wrong with him, and let me just say it wasn't clear to me ether, but that's where the story took me, so there's nothing to do about it now...  
I hope you enjoy any way :)**

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**Percy's POV:**

"Hey Nico? I need to talk to you" I said. "Okay, so for the past, oh, I don't know, year and a half I've been madly inlove with you and I think you know because I don't really even try to hide it and I think you like me back and I wanted to know if you, like, would want to go on a date with me...or something" I blurted out really fast. Ugh, why can't I say it without making a fool of myself? good thing this time was in front of a mirror and not Nico, because it was the worst by far. I've being practicing all afternoon, trying to distract myself from the fact that Nico had to go over to his own house for a reason he _obviously _wouldn't tell me and refused for me to come with him. He is so stubborn. I tried to say what I wanted to say right, without embarrassing my self so much another few times. It didn't work. Why was it so hard? It's not like we're not unofficially together, we both know we are. Sure, it's unofficial and all, but still. It shouldn't be this hard! And then there was the whole 'I'm not actually okay' thing which made me feel like this is the worst time to try to start a relationship with him, but on the other hand, like he should be able to trust me and maybe if I show him how much I care about him he will trust me again...  
Ugh! I really didn't know what to do. So I went with the easiest thing to do in this situation - I threw myself on the bed and screamed into my pillow. It helped. A little. But because we live in such a small, old apartment, and I guess he was walking past my room, Paul heard me scream, and came in to see what was wrong. Even though I'll never admit it to him, that was one of the things I liked most about my step dad - I could always talk to him. He didn't make me feel uncomfortable or stupid or too young to be taken seriously like some grownups make you feel, he makes you feel like what you'r saying is really important and interesting.  
"Hey, Percy." He said in his usual fatherly manor. "Is something wrong?" he asked, with a knowing look in his eye, like he already knew what I was going to say.  
"I'm...ugh...kind of in a dilemma..." I said, deciding to tell him about my problems with Nico. Well, not about all of them, it wasn't my place to talk about the not-okay ones.  
"Go on" he said, in his 'I'm-ready-to-listen' voice. "Okay, so, um, this is probably obvious to you, and, like, everyone else in the world since I don't even try to hide it - I like Nico. Like, like-like him." I said, and paused to see his reaction, but all he did was nod, so I continued. "And even though we obviously aren't just-friends, we aren't officially together ether and we don't, like, kiss and stuff" I said, blushing a little and averting my eyes. "And I really really want to, you know, like, be official and be able to, like kiss him whenever I want and stuff, but I'm really nervous about, like, asking him out...or something." I finished lamely, looking back at Paul, hoping he had some advice.  
"Well, by what I see, Nico likes you too, and it seems like he could really use some support right I say, if you both want it, you should go for it." He said, in a conclusive tone.  
"You really think so?" I asked, just to make sure. "If that's what you both want, or if you think so anyway, you should, yes." He said. That did make sense. Paul really did know how to be convincing. Maybe I'll even do it tonight, after he gets back, I thought. I really was starting to get worried, it's been over an hour since school finished and he went to his house.  
"Thanks Paul, that really helped me." I said honestly. "I think I'll call him and see what's going on, when he'll be back" I said, more to myself that to him, really.  
"Okay. You know you can talk to me if you need me again." he said, more as a statement that a question. "Of course." I said, smiling at him. Once he left the room, I picked up my phone, deciding to text him instead.

**Hey Nico, I'm starting to get a little worried. Come back, or at least call\text me as soon as you can, okay?**

Another half hour went past without hearing a thing from him, and at that point I was pulling my shoes on, ready to go to his house to save him, when the front door opened. And there he was, looking small and weak, a big, fresh bruise on his left cheek, unshed tears welling up in his eyes. My heart broke at the site, and I almost broke in to tears myself. "Percy..." He whispered, his voice braking, and then he was in my arms.

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**AN: So I'm sorry that nothing interesting happened in this chapter, but I liked the Paul and Percy bonding and I also liked writing awkward Percy... I don't plan my chapters out, I don't even have a general idea, I kind of just make everything up on the spot, so I'm sorry if it's bad...  
I hope you enjoyed it though :) **


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